The joy of heat pressing designs will raise the urge to experiment on every fabric you own, even the heat-sensitive ones such as modal. Worry not, this said material can be heat pressed.
However, when you place a modal garment inside a heat press, certain conditions apply. These precautionary measurements are necessary if you want to ensure perfect results.
For your ease and convenience, I have compiled all the dos and don’ts of heat pressing modal fabric in the article below. This will help you transfer beautiful designs, and keep your fabric safe from burning.
Can You Heat Press Modal Fabric
Modal fabric can be tucked inside a heat press, but only when the below-stated circumstances are being met.
Time Span Of Press
When you are setting the time of press on your machine, you need to keep the nature of the material in your mind. For modal, it is recommended to give multiple shorter presses, instead of one long press. Moreover, along with the time, the number of presses is also lower for modal, than other materials. It is ideal to heat press this material for 5 seconds, 2 to 3 times. The number of presses for a single design should not exceed 3, as this material is highly sensitive.
Temperature Limitation
Similar to the time of press, picking the right temperature for your modal project is also critical. The ideal temperature range for this garment is between 250°F to 270°F. However, the latter is a maximum extreme, and a heat press should not be set to this maximum. For a sensitive material such as modal, it is ideal to set the temperature at the lowest, and then increase it gradually, if required. Setting the highest temperature right at the start of the project will only give you burnt results.
Covering Sheet
This factor may get neglected as it seems like a small detail, but this minor detail will prevent your garment from scorching. The presence of a sheet of parchment paper between the platens of the heat press, and the modal fabric is necessary. The covering sheet makes sure the garment stays safe from burning from direct heat. Moreover, it also keeps the fabric safe from sticking to the platens of the heat press.
Ideal Stickers
Not every type of vinyl sticker in the market is ideal for modal fabric. It has a peculiar nature, which means it requires a specific type of vinyl transfer. There are multiple types of vinyl transfers in the market, each ideal for a specific garment. For modal fabric, you need to pick out the ones that are made for this specific material.
Cold Peel
Modal fabric is not a hold peel, it is somewhat of a cold peel. This means that when you take your project out of the heat press, it needs to cool down for a couple of minutes. When you allow the fabric to be completely cool, and then peel off the transfer sheet, it will not remove the vinyl design underneath. Peeling the carrier sheet right away will result in the vinyl design getting disrupted.
Conclusion
Placing a modal garment in the heat press without any precautions will not give you the results you are looking for. Even though this material can be heat pressed, perfect results are only guaranteed if you follow the guidelines that are stated above.
I’m Henry Collins and living my happy life. I’m a professional businessman and I own and run 6 Heat Pressing Services stores where I provide my clients with custom Designs on hats, mugs, T-Shirts and a lot more using Heat Press Machine. Been using a heat press for the last 4 years and people love my work. As I’ve got enough information on Heat Press I decided to make a blog on it and share my knowledge with the world. I hope, the world will appreciate it.